The History of Doughnuts

Though doughnuts have become ingrained in American cuisine, they were brought there by European settlers.

Doughnuts travelled to the US with Dutch settlers and became a much-loved national snack - despite their invention as a hunger-busting austerity food.

Fried dough is an old, old vice. It probably has been on the menu for as long as flour has been milled and large quantities of animal fat or oil have been on hand.

The North American version seems to have its origins in the decades after the American Revolution when a Dutch treat took on a new identity as "doughnuts".